Many thanks to Bill for his sermon and for his reminder of the constancy of change, and the amazing choice The Lord makes to not remember our sin. And, we are commanded to be imitators of God - Eph. 5:1. In fact, the context of that verse indicates that the characteristic of God that we are to imitate is the way He forgives and, obviously, the way He chooses not to remember sin.

But wait a minute - being able to forget is something that seems like a super-power. God may be able to pull it off, but how can He hold me to such a standard? I physically cannot forget the things that other people have done to me.

Of course, there are some things that I do forget - like important dates, people's names, last week's sermon, and...I can't remember the other things.

So, maybe the truth is that I do have the ability to both forgive and forget. Maybe the truth is that I refuse to forget what other people did to me because I want to hang on to my anger, I want to feel morally superior, I want to hold their sin over their heads forever.

Rather than claiming I can't forget other people's hurtful actions, I should be on my knees in repentance. Thankfully, there is grace, there is hope, and there is the Holy Spirit living within me. And through the strength of The Spirit, there can be real forgiveness, and real renewal of fellowship.

Ambrose Ramsey | Pastor and Shepherd | Throwback to January 2017